Mint
by MadoHomu
Summary: She didn't care about her legendary God-like powers, or fairy tales like the story of how Beauty changed the heart of the Beast. But she wanted to protect her, the epitome of sweetness and kindness. And for that cause, she decided to believe in Happily Ever Afters.


Mint

She didn't care about her legendary God-like powers, or fairy tales like the story of how Beauty changed the heart of the Beast. But she wanted to protect her, the epitome of sweetness and kindness. And for that cause, she decided to believe in Happily Ever Afters.

* * *

Homura disliked sweets. It always gave her a sticky sense of discomfort after eating something under that category and it made her feel like puking. Besides, she had to follow a strict diet because of her health so maybe it wasn't any loss for her.

But then she met _her_ , the epitome of _sweetness_ and kindness.

And everything was history.

And she was born to change it.

It was her twentieth time Homura had travelled to the past to rewrite the wrong. And here she was, back to square one and sitting on her school chair and staring at the whiteboard with hollow eyes, despite all the truth and secrets hidden behind them.

The school bell rang and the class was dismissed for lunch break.

Every Wednesday of the week, Madoka would join her club mates for lunch at the canteen, a routine that was found in the Wikipedia Homura had written in her head about Madoka. That was why when she watched Madoka standing before her desk with a smile on her face, Homura was surprised, but she was trained enough to not show it out.

"Homura-chan!"

"...What is it?"

Madoka whipped out something from her back and showed a candy on her palm. "I heard you coughing during class. Maybe this can help."

Homura stared at the sweet, and then the lines on her palm, and the way Madoka curled the end of her fingers...

She remembered telling Mami and Madoka during one cake party _long time ago_ that she didn't like sweets, and Mami promised she would make something a little more suitable for Homura's taste for their next party, despite how the once shy girl refused because of how inconvenient it would be.

 _"It's okay!"_ Madoka would smile and take Homura's filled plate. _"I can help you to finish it! Everyone's happy!"_

But everyone forgets in the end too.

"Thank you." Homura accepted the sweet from Madoka's hand. Why bother explaining?

"You're welcome!" Madoka's smile remained strong. "I got to go now. Enjoy your lunch, Homura-chan!" And she skipped out of her door with her bento box.

When Homura reached her empty home, she smoothed her palm across the other arm and her time shield magically appeared. She rummaged through her storage and pulled out an almost-filled jar that she kept with her throughout all the timelines and placed it on her desk. She fished out the same sweet Madoka gave her this afternoon from one of her school uniform's pockets.

Another collection.

She dropped the sweet into the jar and shut it tight, wistfully hoping that she wouldn't have to open it again.

 _This time I will make it right._

.

Her powers were basically God-like; her ability to control time was one thing, the other was to heal. Even though Sayaka's potential of healing was far better than hers, Homura was satisfied with her strength.

Or so she thought.

She was hurt during yesterday's fight with a witch, and even though she attained her grief seed and used it immediately after her battle, the wounds and aches were still there. School was the least of her concerns and rest sounded more appealing, but Madoka was there, and Kyubey would be there too.

She had to go.

Her heart issue was no longer a problem for her, but she used this excuse and sent herself to the nurse's office and away from the classroom where her headaches increased whenever the annoying teacher was talking about love. And being the nurse's assistant, Madoka was tasked to send Homura to the nurse's office.

A good plan.

Madoka didn't complain, which was something she never change throughout all the timelines. She helped her to one of the beds in the office and tended to her needs, even when Homura didn't ask for it. _Do you need water? How about an extra pillow? Should I switch the lights off?_ In all honesty, her presence was enough for Homura to heal.

"Please don't overwork yourself, Homura-chan." Madoka gave a soft smile. So she knew it wasn't her heart problem; she knew it all along.

Homura and Sayaka weren't on friendly terms, and being stuck in the middle, these words were more than enough for Homura to know the never ending boundary of Madoka's kindness. Homura stared at her from the bed and nodded as a reply, even though she fully knew herself that she wasn't going to follow what Madoka had said. She needed to fight to get stronger, to make sure there wasn't a need for another magical girls to kill witches, to at least endure until Walpurgis Night was over.

She needed to protect _this_ Madoka.

 _I will make everything right._

.

Even though Homura failed this timeline, there was always another timeline. And in another timeline, there was always Madoka. Madoka would be alive and happy, and if Homura was lucky, this timeline would eventually work out and Madoka would _forever_ be alive and happy till the day she dies as a normal human being.

But it was getting harder to lie.

And then all of the sudden, she couldn't lie anymore.

There wasn't a next timeline. There wasn't any more timelines. Everything was rewritten into a new phase and another magical girl with literal God-like powers had ruled the Earth where Demons roamed. Kaname Madoka, also known as the Goddess, and also known as...

Nothing.

No one remembered Madoka. No one knew who she was except Homura. With the red ribbons, the only thing to remind Homura of the best friend she had, she continued to live and destroy the demons along with Mami and Kyoko.

One late afternoon, Homura finally got the time to clean up the storage space in her time shield. She no longer had the power to turn back time, but the power to store an infinite amount of things in her time shield didn't change, which was the only thing she was happy about in this universe. She'd managed to clear many useless weapons and was about to take a break when the next item she took out was something she _almost_ forgotten.

It was the glass jar of sweets.

Carrying the jar, Homura slumped onto her couch and stared at it for a long while. One Kaname Madoka, two Kaname Madoka, three Kaname Madoka... just how many Kaname Madoka had died throughout all these timelines to attain this collection of filled sweets in this jar? And with all those deaths and sacrifices... Everything still remained the same.

It was still the worst nightmare of her life.

Why didn't she stop Madoka? Why didn't she turn back time? Why? _Why?_ There was so many whys running through her head every single day, but there wasn't any answer she could think of. The only thing she understood was regret, and it stuck to her like a disease with no cure.

She dumped her time shield on the other side of the couch and pluck the cover open. The smell of mint and sweetness had clouded together so much that once she opened the jar, the scent almost overwhelmed her, and it didn't help when she didn't like sweets in the first place. She tilted her head away for a bit before mustering some courage to look back at the bottle of sweets.

 _Why..._

She picked out one of the sweets and began unwrapping the wrapper, the scent was much stronger than before. The sweet was striped white and red, and without much consideration, she threw the sweet into her mouth and savoured the taste. Cherry mint flavour. The worse kind Homura could ever choose.

She hated sweets. She _really_ hated sweets. And the mint was so, so spicy to the point where she began choking onto her tears that rolled down her cheeks. Yes. It was all the mint's fault. It got to be it. It was as though a dam finally broken behind her pathetic facade, and not once had she suspected there would be so much water behind the wall. How could this possibly mend her throat? This would definitely made her coughing even worse.

Madoka. Silly Madoka.

 _I can't make anything right. I can't do it anymore even if I wanted to._

And there she sat on the couch, crying with the mint still in her mouth and the jar of sweets on her lap until the sun sets and everything in the room turned dark. She had already lost her sunshine years ago, so there wasn't any difference anyway.

.

High up on a tall building in town, Homura sat on the edge of the roof, her favourite place to go whenever she finished her Demon battle and wanted to be alone. The stars were her only companion, and if she was lucky enough, maybe Madoka might be one of those stars, watching her too.

She still didn't care about how everyone was envious with her unique and special God-like powers, or miracles, or fairy tales like the story of how Beauty changed the heart of the Beast. She didn't believe in a lot of things, because even the wish she made to save Madoka was all a lie. She became a magical girl for _nothing._

But maybe she believed in one thing.

Whenever a meteor shower happened, Homura would close her eyes and make a wish to the stars because some Greek legend said wishes would come true like that. It was the stupidest thing she ever done in her life, besides not stopping Madoka from making her last wish to erase all witches. But it was worth a shot. Maybe those fallen stars might hear her pleas and send it to some God who had even greater powers to fulfil her pitiful wish. Just maybe.

Homura always made the same and stupid wish, that in another world, a girl named Akemi Homura would meet another girl called Kaname Madoka, but Magical Girls and Witches never exist. Madoka's smile would still be like a ray of sunshine and Homura would still hate sweets. They would joke all day, laugh all night and share about things that no normal people would talk about. Homura would probably still stick to her doubtful behaviour towards Madoka's fantasy about fairy tales and its perfect _happily ever after_ , but she knew she would eventually come to terms with the three make-believe words soon.

Because if Madoka had remained by her side, she knew that their ending could have been the same too.

end

* * *

hello my penis children.  
Hmmm, cashbanky is gone and dead. It's very sad but I am living in her stead by being sexy forever!  
Thank you all


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